Etsy Pulls Rape-Promoting T-Shirts From Site Amid Outcry, Activists Push for Further Action

Until Wednesday afternoon, you could buy a t-shirt featuring the phrase “Autumn is perfect for date rape" through a shop on the website Etsy. (RAINN / Change.org)

UPDATE, October 24, 12:00 p.m.: This article has been updated to reflect that the shirt about sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman at a party has apparently been taken down from the fyourtshirt shop. Other t-shirts, including one about a person “tied naked to a tree,” remain.

Until Wednesday afternoon, Etsy, the online marketplace where you can find everything from a vintage Turkish Anatolian Kilim rug to the Sharknado cat hat, also made available through one of its sellers a t-shirt featuring the phrase “Autumn is perfect for date rape.” In fact, the Etsy shop fyourtshirt had a collection of seven t-shirts with slogans making light of rape until the shirts were pulled from the shop amid an outcry from activists.

A petition to “Shut Down [the] Rape T-shirt Seller” sprang up on Change.org Wednesday afternoon; as of 5:00 p.m. it had more than 2,200 signatures. The petition notes that “according to Etsy’s terms of use, items or listings that promote, support or glorify acts of violence or harm towards self or others are strictly prohibited.” The petition asked Etsy Community Management to remove the seller and products because the t-shirts “[promote] messages of rape, elder abuse and sexual violence.”

Katherine Hull, a spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), which launched the petition, told RH Reality Check that the t-shirts were brought to their attention Wednesday morning. “Within a couple of hours we had over 1,500 signatures,” said Hull.

“What we’re really trying to do is striving to change the way Americans think about sexual violence,” said Hull. “We’ve been using social media to encourage our supporters to take a stand against these t-shirts and against sexual violence. This is another example of the fact that we need to show that sexual violence has no place in our society.”

The fyourtshirt store, which describes its merchandise as “T-Shirts. Lame but Expensive,” sells shirts for $12.99. Although shirts with the slogans “I’m a sensitive guy. I only rape pregnant women,” “Old people are useless. You can’t even rape them,” and “Rape is fine, just accept Jesus” were pulled from the site, the shop still sells t-shirts that use ableist language as well as a shirt about a person “tied naked to a tree.”

RAINN updated its petition after the shirts were pulled: “RAINN has not received a response from Etsy, and while some of the t-shirts in question have been removed there are still several that imply incest and non-consensual sex acts. Sign this petition to have Etsy remove the seller fyourt.”

An Etsy spokesperson told RH Reality Check in an email after the initial shirts had been pulled that “[t]hese items have been flagged, and our Trust & Safety team is investigating. They will remove any listings that violate our prohibited items policy, which specifies that items or listings that promote, support or glorify acts of violence or harm towards self or others are not allowed. You can find that policy here: http://www.etsy.com/help/article/4525.”

In addition to signing the petition, it will go a long way to actually report the seller to Etsy for objectionable content.

Kris

I find it very hard to comprehend why Etsy would not close the entire shop down.If this is what the site has come to that they would turn a blind eye to such hateful slogans and think that it’s enough to a pull a few t-shirts yet leave more in the shop equally as offense they should take a really hard look at what this site has become.Is it worth your 3.5% commission to allow this filth to remain?The sad part is they spout the party line we don’t allow….. ya you do because the shop is still there.
Etsy should make a large donation to the rape crisis centers this is shameful.

Mickey Bitsko

Just give the internet back to the researchers already. It really isn’t working out.